12 Exiting the Starport
As Cooper snored in his sleep, flight attendants came out with snacks and water for passengers. Hong refused the offers as he failed to gain any more information out of the sub-space. He gradually lost interest as he messed with the virtual glasses.
Around 54 minutes passed by, and nothing eventful happened the entire trip. The flight attendees had returned to their seat and people that were moving about went to their seats.
Hong was enjoying the virtual games when he was interrupted by the intercom.
*Ding
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We will be exiting hyperspace in three minutes. We strongly suggest that all passengers and flight attendees to please return to your seats and buckle in. Please put your virtual glasses where they belong. Thank you."
The intercom cut off and people put on their seatbelts. Cooper gradually woke up and stretched in response.
*yawn* "What time is it?" Cooper asked groggily.
"They just said we're gonna land in three minutes." Hong replied as he took off the virtual glasses.
"Three minutes? Crap! I need to pee!" His eyes widened as he wiggled uncomfortably.
"Then hurry up." Hong said with slight amusement.
Cooper took off his seatbelt and stood up.
"Excuse me." He whispered to the people next to him. They looked over and moved their feet in with slight dissatisfaction as he squeezed by, continuously apologizing. Upon getting out, he ran ahead with fast steps.
He came back a minute later with a red face and sweat on his forehead while slightly panting. He apologized to the others as he squeezed in and sat down. He put on his seatbelt and relaxed a sigh of relief.
"Hehe. Sorry." He embarrassingly rubbed the sweat off his forehead.
"No issue." Hong said nonchalantly.
A minute later, the same ding came through as the seatbelt light came on. Another minute later, the intercom came back on.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will be leaving hyperspace in approximately 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
The spacecraft trembled slightly as the black void outside the sub-space barrier was replaced with regular space. The red barrier quickly faded away before disappearing, revealing the vast dots of light that were everywhere in the blackness of space.
Looking through the window, you could not tell if you had left the galaxy. It's difficult to tell considering that the dots of light from the galaxy are similar to the ones produced by the Great Barrier. One had to activate a star map of the place and overlap it with the galaxy to properly see.
The galaxy had been stripped so badly that it looked no different than the fake galaxies. You could not see any of the gases or stars that you would normally see in a galaxy. Centaurus had been cleanly devoured by humanity, leaving the remnants of dead stars behind.
One could not imagine the feelings of the natives here who had originally colonized the place to make a living.
Aside from that, Hong looked the other direction and used his powerful soul to see the other windows on the other side of the craft.
A giant station sat in space and formed the shape of a tube and was supposedly attached to an invisible wall.
The station as mentioned formed the shape of a hollowed out cylinder. The interior was lined with countless docking ports and buildings. On the exterior of the hollowed-out cylinder are more docking ports, with many floating stations next to it. Spacecraft constantly flew out of the tube while others flew inside. Others parked on the exterior while others left.
A blue energy barrier in the shape of a circle was at the entrance of the cylinder, which countless craft passed through. Presumably, an atmosphere was present inside the structure.
Behind them was hundreds of giant hypergates made of unknown metals. Spacecraft constantly came out and in at any moment.
A holographic sign floated in space with the words, "Welcome to the Western Great Barrier Station no. 8"
The spacecraft went past the sign and floated over to a commercial starport that floated not too far away from the Western GB Station. In fact, it was close enough that an energy highway was established between the two, allowing civilian hovercraft to fly between them.
The blue energy highway was tubular shaped, with vehicles going back and forth constantly.
The spacecraft went through procedures and floated over to a terminal. Once it was close enough, a beam of blue light was emitted from the terminal. The blue light encased the spacecraft and positioned the spacecraft like a tractor beam before vanishing. A star bridge came out and connected to the side of the hull.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at the Western Great Barrier Station. Please leave do not leave behind any items or trash you brought on board. We thank you for riding with Spacasio Spaceflight and hope you enjoy your day."
The intercom buzzed as people undid their seatbelts and stood up, crowding the aisle with commotion. There was no room for Copper and Hong to stand up, so they could only stay seated and wait.
Eventually, the crowds began to move to the front at a slow pace. Both of them waited until the crowds had sufficiently thinned before joining in.
They came up to the front before exiting the spacecraft, and stepping onto the star bridge. Everyone including them crowded onto the moving walkways as they headed to the terminal.
Upon entering, both of them stepped to the side and let the countless people flood out like a tsunami.
"Well, it seems that we'll be parting here." Cooper said mentally with a tinge of sadness.
"Where are you heading?" Asked Hong with a slight reluctance in his heart.
"My driver is to pick me up and then head to Galaxy 9. What about you?"
"My boss wants me to be a mascot, so they sent me over here for business."
"I see. Well then, maybe fate will allows us to cross paths." Cooper shook hands with him and joined the crowds, waving back. Hong did as well, and then sighed.
"Well now. I should get on my way then." He muttered, before heading another direction.
Hong followed the signs to his next terminal.
